THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601130285
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 151 lines
What would a hurricane hitting South Hampton Roads have in common with the region's lagging economy?
Answer: They both show the need for a Norfolk-Raleigh expressway.
At least that's the suggestion of the Norfolk Federation of Business Districts, a newcomer among local merchant associations.
The federation is an umbrella group for merchant groups from 10 business districts: Wards Corner, the Janaf Shopping Center, East Little Creek Road, Mid-Town, Military Circle, Norview, Ocean View, Old Dominion, the Southern Shopping Center and 35th Street.
Together, those areas contributed about $22 million in taxes to Norfolk's treasury in 1995.
The group, founded about two years ago, also has ambitions beyond any single merchant association.
Usually, merchant associations focus on problems that affect their immediate neighborhoods, such as crime, shopper parking problems and upkeep of property.
But the federation's priorities include big-picture issues, such as the expressway idea. It also has hired a lawyer to study possible legal actions against Norfolk's proposed MacArthur Center shopping mall and holds monthly public forums on local issues.
The business group isn't necessarily opposed to MacArthur Center, but it does not like city plans to partly subsidize the shopping mall with public funds.
The subsidy amounts to giving the mall an unfair advantage over other business districts, said Andrew Sacks, an attorney representing the federation.
City officials are reluctant to comment about the federation's efforts but privately categorize members as chronic complainers. Federation leaders say it's more of a dispute over city priorities.
But the federation's positions have struck a chord with some Norfolk civic leagues. Carl Meredith, president of the Lafayette-Winona Civic League, said he decided to oppose public funds for the mall after attending the federation forums. He also supports the expressway.
The federation targeted the expressway idea in belief that the region never will achieve its full economic potential without more access from the south, says Brian Hirschler, a founder and former president of the group.
The idea is for a 200-mile interstate from the Virginia Beach oceanfront to the Raleigh-Durham area. Federation members contend that economic growth from expressway commerce will bring new prosperity to the region, including all of Norfolk's business districts.
``We have to make the pie larger,'' said Jim Cundiff, the federation's president and manager of the J.C. Penney Co. store at Military Circle.
The federation maintains that the expressway also is necessary to the region's hurricane evacuation plans. The highway, which they want built 20 feet above sea level, would provide an alternative to routes that could become flooded.
To promote its hurricane-evacuation message - as well as economic reasons for an expressway - the federation has produced a half-hour television documentary which aired Oct. 8 on WHRO-TV.
The show features photos of local storm damage from the 1933 hurricane that flooded 30 percent of Norfolk and scenes from Hurricane Hugo's impact in South Carolina. It also includes interviews with officials from the National Weather Service and the Virginia Department of Transportation.
The interviews, by federation member Rick Salzberg, include comments like these from Stephany Hanshaw, a VDOT system engineer: ``We have a unique problem in the Hampton Roads area in that we have a very limited amount of roadway to evacuate the populace.''
Hanshaw also warns of roadway snarls if traffic from the Outer Banks tries to escape northward through Southeastern Virginia.
The federation plans to distribute copies of the television show to every Norfolk neighborhood civic league. The group also hopes to have it aired on each city's municipal cable-television station.
Another federation project has been a series of monthly ``Community Dialogue'' breakfasts on Norfolk issues, such as Nauticus and the MacArthur Center. The forums have drawn top-ranking city officials, such as Mayor Paul D. Fraim, to answer citizen questions.
To further its relations with neighborhood groups, the Norfolk Federation of Business Districts has created a seat on its board of directors for the Norfolk Federation of Civic Leagues.
``We're always exchanging ideas, and small businesses always advertise in civic-league newsletters,'' said Tommy White, president of the Norfolk Federation of Civic Leagues.
White also said civic leagues have a kinship with small businesses in that both sectors often ``feel they're being left out of the decision-making process'' at Norfolk City Hall.
The business federation got its start when Brian Hirschler voiced concern that Wards Corner - the location of his business, Hirschler's shoes - wasn't getting enough attention from Norfolk officials. He began comparing notes with leaders of other business districts outside downtown.
``I was excited that there was a group that shared a common vision, that I wasn't alone,'' said Jay Sherrill, of the Old Dominion Merchants Association and an owner of the Old Dominion Inn on Hampton Boulevard. ``If you look at who really takes the risks in the city, it's the businesses.''
Hirschler and other members credit Louis Eisenberg, owner of Uncle Louie's restaurant at Ward's Corner, with getting the federation to focus on the expressway idea.
``It's just going back to basics,'' Eisenberg said. ``The prime asset of Hampton Roads is its port . . . But Hampton Roads has not been able to reach its potential economically and become a major economic center such as Atlanta and now Charlotte and now Jacksonville, because we do not have the infrastructure in place to support the port. The major infrastructure project that we're lacking is southern access out of Hampton Roads.
``This project will create quality, high-paying, value-added jobs for this area, the kind of jobs that fuel business. We can't just be concerned with everyday business issues. We have to be concerned with the economic environment.''
Kathy Reese, another federation member, added: ``The solution to all our concerns was coming together, working together and looking at the larger picture because the improved economy will give us the tax base and the money to do all the little improvements . . . the traffic lights, beautification projects, increase the police force.
``The economy is going to be spurred in this area by improving the access.''
So far, the expressway proposal has received, at best, lukewarm response from government.
John Chappell, the federation's volunteer executive director, hopes to get candidate commitments in this year's congressional elections. Meanwhile, he said, the group is trying to interest Gov. George F. Allen's administration.
But the Allen administration, Chappell said, is reluctant to endorse the expressway because of its costs, and there is no sense yet that Hampton Roads cities want it.
Dwight Farmer, transportation director for the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, estimates that such an expressway would cost $6 billion but save no more than 30 minutes travel time to Raleigh.
Meanwhile, Virginia already is considering major improvements to Routes 17 and 104 in Chesapeake to link up with improved roads in North Carolina, Farmer said.
There's also competition from dozens of other road projects. ``We've got $9 billion in needs but projected funding for only $3.5 billion,'' Farmer said.
The Norfolk Federation of Business Districts is undeterred.
``There never seems to be a shortage of money after a hurricane hits,'' Chappell said. ``It would be a shame if it took a hurricane to get this accomplished.'' ILLUSTRATION: Map
VP
Color photo
RICHARD L. DUNSTON/The Virginian-Pilot
The Norfolk Federation of Business Districts, whose members include
Brian Hirschler, left, and Jim Cundiff, is a newcomer among local
merchant associations. It is an umbrella group for merchants from 10
business districts. The federation is pushing for a Norfolk-Raleigh
expressway. It also is studying possible legal action against
Norfolk's proposed MacArthur Center.
by CNB